Atheist Nexus2015-03-31T21:32:47ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardnerhttp://api.ning.com:80/files/wdDZeipuIRzbFL6xNDVVtU631G-*sKhMIJ6J1-MFwON6fGGxSLT3UINIcKAT5rYq2k8KMoVOCWBzaCjqwnIJ-0eqN5I4bGnN/1111859176.jpeg?xgip=0%3A0%3A224%3A224%3B%3B&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.atheistnexus.org/group/environmentalatheists/forum/topic/listForContributor?groupUrl=environmentalatheists&user=0qxp7c3qz3s2k&feed=yes&xn_auth=noOcean Oxygen Decreasetag:www.atheistnexus.org,2015-03-23:2182797:Topic:25843732015-03-23T19:08:37.820ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150313-oceans-marine-life-climate-change-acidification-oxygen-fish/" target="_blank">Oceans Are Losing Oxygen—and Becoming More Hostile to Life</a></p>
<p>Marlin and Sailfish are staying within 800 meters of the surface in <span>Guatemala and Costa Rica</span>, instead of deep diving as usual, to avoid suffocation.</p>
<p>Declining ocean oxygen is as significant as water warming and acidification. Midwater fish which support the Pacific…</p>
<p><a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150313-oceans-marine-life-climate-change-acidification-oxygen-fish/" target="_blank">Oceans Are Losing Oxygen—and Becoming More Hostile to Life</a></p>
<p>Marlin and Sailfish are staying within 800 meters of the surface in <span>Guatemala and Costa Rica</span>, instead of deep diving as usual, to avoid suffocation.</p>
<p>Declining ocean oxygen is as significant as water warming and acidification. Midwater fish which support the Pacific food chain have declined 63% since the 1950s.</p>
<blockquote><p>... a disturbing trend: Warming temperatures are <a href="http://micheli.stanford.edu/pdf/oceanographicandbiologicaleffectsofshoaling.pdf">sucking oxygen out of waters</a> even far out at sea, making enormous stretches of deep ocean hostile to marine life.</p>
<p><span>This phenomenon could transform the seas as much as global warming or ocean acidification will,...</span></p>
<p>“Two hundred meters down, there is a freight train of low-oxygen water barreling toward the surface,”...</p>
<div class="text smartbody parbase section"><p>These are not coastal dead zones, like the one that sprawls across the Gulf of Mexico, but great swaths of deep water that can reach thousands of miles offshore. Already naturally low in oxygen, <a href="http://www.icess.ucsb.edu/%7Edavey/Geog163/Readings/annurev-1.marine.010908.163855.pdf">these regions keep growing</a>, spreading horizontally and vertically. Included are vast portions of the eastern Pacific, almost all of the Bay of Bengal, and an area of the Atlantic off West Africa as broad as the United States.</p>
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<div class="text smartbody parbase section"><blockquote><p>Globally, these low-oxygen areas have <a href="http://levin.ucsd.edu/publications/2010update/Stramma%20et%20al.%202010.pdf">expanded by more than 1.7 million square miles</a> (4.5 million square kilometers) in the past 50 years.</p>
<div class="text smartbody parbase section"><p>Over the next decade, researchers figured out that this change already was driving marine creatures—sailfish, <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/214/2/326.full.pdf">sharks</a>, tuna, <a href="http://modb.oce.ulg.ac.be/colloquium/2014/presentations2014/Prince2014LiegeColloquium.pdf">swordfish</a>, and <a href="http://www.pices.int/publications/presentations/PICES-2010/2010-S1/S1-day2/S1-1425-Ono.pdf">Pacific cod</a>, as well as the smaller sardines, herring, shad, and mackerel they eat—into ever narrower bands of oxygen-rich water near the surface.</p>
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<p>“It leaves just a very thin lens on the top of the ocean where most organisms can live,”...</p>
<p>... <strong>fish often credited with keeping marine systems functioning soundly</strong>—tiny midwater bristlemouths, the region’s most abundant marine species, as well as viperfish, hatchetfish, razor-mouthed dragonfish, and even minnow-like lampfish.</p>
<div class="text smartbody parbase section"><p>All are significant parts of the seafood buffet <strong>that supports life in the eastern Pacific</strong>, and all <a href="http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v436/p207-218/">are declining dramatically</a> with the vertical rise of low-oxygen water.</p>
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<div class="text smartbody parbase section"><p>“If it was a 10 percent change, it wouldn’t have been worth noting, but they’ve <strong>declined by 63 percent,</strong>” says Koslow, of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. And “what’s been amazing is <strong>it’s across the board—eight major groups of deep-sea fishes declining together—and it’s strongly correlated with declining oxygen</strong>.” [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p>Oxygen minimum zones affect <em>global</em> ocean chemistry <a href="http://phys.org/news/2013-02-scientists-key-factor-ocean-nitrogen.html" target="_blank">by removing available nitrogen</a>. Map is for 2009.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx/news/2013/6gkjyhgh.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx/news/2013/6gkjyhgh.jpg?width=450" width="450"/></a></p>
<blockquote>Around 30- 50% of global marine N-loss takes place in these areas, which represent only ca. 0.1% of the ocean´ s volume.</blockquote>
</div> California orders 12 oil-field wells shut to protect groundwatertag:www.atheistnexus.org,2015-03-04:2182797:Topic:25784512015-03-04T20:52:25.059ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0304-wells-closed-20150304-story.html" target="_blank">California orders 12 oil-field wells shut to protect groundwater</a></p>
<blockquote><p>California officials, responding to concerns about groundwater contamination, are closing 12 wells in the Central Valley used to dispose of chemical-laden water from oil and gas production, regulators announced Tuesday.</p>
<p>Steve Bohlen, who leads the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal…</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-0304-wells-closed-20150304-story.html" target="_blank">California orders 12 oil-field wells shut to protect groundwater</a></p>
<blockquote><p>California officials, responding to concerns about groundwater contamination, are closing 12 wells in the Central Valley used to dispose of chemical-laden water from oil and gas production, regulators announced Tuesday.</p>
<p>Steve Bohlen, who leads the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, said the wells are being shut down "out of an abundance of caution for public health."</p>
<p>Ten of the wells, including some owned by Chevron, have been closed voluntarily and the companies have surrendered their permits. Two more are being ordered to cease operations.</p>
<p>Federal officials have expressed concerns about the state's oversight of injection wells. Some of the wells are used to dispose of wastewater produced during hydraulic fracturing, a method of oil and gas extraction better known as fracking.</p>
<p>California has about 50,000 underground injection wells, and 2,553 are in areas with aquifers that have been or could be a source of usable water. State regulators have been focusing their review on 176 wells and expect to complete their study in the next three months.</p>
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<p><span class="trb_bylines_name_primary"><span class="trb_bylines_name_author"><span class="trb_bylines_name_author_by">By </span><a class="trb_bylines_name_author_a" href="http://www.latimes.com/la-bio-chris-megerian-staff.html">CHRIS MEGERIAN</a></span></span><a class="trb_bylines_contactLink" href="mailto:chris.megerian@latimes.com?subject=Regarding%20California%20orders%2012%20oil-field%20wells%20shut%20to%20protect%20groundwater">contact the reporter</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.trbimg.com/img-54efe42a/turbine/la-oilpitsbrug-la0027254379-20150224/650/650x366" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.trbimg.com/img-54efe42a/turbine/la-oilpitsbrug-la0027254379-20150224/650/650x366?width=300" width="300" class="align-full"/><span class="trb_embed_related_title">Wastewater pits</span></a></p>
<div class="trb_embed_related_credit">Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times</div>
<p><a href="http://www.trbimg.com/img-54efe42a/turbine/la-oilpitsbrug-la0027254379-20150224/650/650x366" target="_blank"></a></p>
<div class="trb_embed_related_caption">An aerial view of pits containing production water from oil wells.</div>
<p><a href="http://www.trbimg.com/img-54efe42a/turbine/la-oilpitsbrug-la0027254379-20150224/650/650x366" target="_blank"></a></p>
<p></p>
<p></p> Ocean anoxia from one centrury of Climate Changetag:www.atheistnexus.org,2015-01-28:2182797:Topic:25407962015-01-28T22:02:37.165ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>Melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets seem of little concern to the public. New evidence shows that when ice sheets melted at the end of the last ice age, extensive ocean areas became anoxic within 100 years.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150128152155.htm" target="_blank">Smothered oceans: Extreme oxygen loss in oceans accompanied past global climate change</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Seafloor sediment cores reveal <strong>abrupt, extensive loss of…</strong></p>
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<p>Melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets seem of little concern to the public. New evidence shows that when ice sheets melted at the end of the last ice age, extensive ocean areas became anoxic within 100 years.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150128152155.htm" target="_blank">Smothered oceans: Extreme oxygen loss in oceans accompanied past global climate change</a></p>
<blockquote><p>Seafloor sediment cores reveal <strong>abrupt, extensive loss of oxygen in the ocean when ice sheets melted</strong> roughly 10,000-17,000 years ago, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. The findings provide insight into similar changes observed in the ocean today.</p>
<p>In the study, published in the journal <em>PLOS ONE</em>, researchers analyzed marine sediment cores from different world regions to document the extent to which low oxygen zones in the ocean have expanded in the past, due to climate change.</p>
<p>From the subarctic Pacific to the Chilean margins, <strong>they found evidence of extreme oxygen loss stretching from the upper ocean to about 3,000 meters deep</strong>. In some oceanic regions, such loss took place over a time period of 100 years or less.</p>
<p>"<strong>This is a global story that</strong> knits these regions together and <strong>shows that when you warm the planet rapidly, whole ocean basins can lose oxygen very abruptly and very extensively</strong>,"... [emphasis mine]</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a target="_blank" href="http://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/01/150128152155-large.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/01/150128152155-large.jpg?width=300" width="300"/></a>This map of the California Current shows the extent of the low-oxygen seafloor. Yellow indicates intermediate hypoxia, while red zones are areas of severe oxygen loss.</p>
</blockquote> Abrupt Climate System Reorganization in one or two decadestag:www.atheistnexus.org,2015-01-24:2182797:Topic:25391742015-01-24T22:59:40.040ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>Paul Beckwith, John Nissen, Leonid Yurganov, Natalia Shakhova and Ira Leifer warn that feedbacks could cause an abrupt climate change system reorganization within a decade or two, leading to a planet 5 to 6 degrees hotter.</p>
<p>Before reading this, I realized that the Arctic was warming much faster than the rest of the planet, but I'd never grasped the Arctic as a <em>source</em> of <em>global</em> heating. The Arctic heating equatorial regions hadn't "computed" to me before.</p>
<p>I knew…</p>
<p>Paul Beckwith, John Nissen, Leonid Yurganov, Natalia Shakhova and Ira Leifer warn that feedbacks could cause an abrupt climate change system reorganization within a decade or two, leading to a planet 5 to 6 degrees hotter.</p>
<p>Before reading this, I realized that the Arctic was warming much faster than the rest of the planet, but I'd never grasped the Arctic as a <em>source</em> of <em>global</em> heating. The Arctic heating equatorial regions hadn't "computed" to me before.</p>
<p>I knew that a decreased equator-to-pole thermal gradient disrupted the jet stream. But I didn't consider how that new south-north heat transport was a feedback loop connected to the albedo change and methane release feedback loops.</p>
<p>"Continuing fracturing of our climate systems" resonates in my head.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/methane-400x225.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/methane-400x225.jpg"/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-methane-monster-roars/5426116" target="_blank">The Methane Monster Roars</a></p>
<blockquote><p>British scientist John Nissen, chairman of the Arctic Methane Emergency Group,<a href="http://ameg.me/" target="_blank">suggests</a> that if the summer sea ice loss passes “the point of no return” and “catastrophic Arctic methane feedbacks” kick in, we’ll be in an “instant planetary emergency.”</p>
<p>Paul Beckwith, a climatology and meteorology professor at the University of Ottawa, Canada, is an engineer and physicist who researches abrupt climate change in both the present day and in the paleoclimatology records of the deep past.</p>
<p>“<strong><span class="font-size-3">It is my view that our climate system is in early stages of abrupt climate change that, unchecked, will lead to a temperature rise of 5 to 6 degrees Celsius within a decade or two</span></strong>,” Beckwith told me.</p>
<p>Beckwith warns that losing the Arctic sea ice will create a state that “will represent a very different planet, with a much higher global average temperature, in which snow and ice in the northern hemisphere becomes very rare or even vanishes year round.”</p>
<p>According to a study published in Nature Geoscience,... at least 17 teragrams (17 million tons) of methane are being released into the atmosphere each year, whereas a <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116532" target="_blank">2010 study had found</a> only seven teragrams heading into the atmosphere.</p>
<p>Yurganov does not foresee an immediate global collapse within a decade. In his view, the summer Arctic sea ice will continue to shrink in a more linear fashion,...</p>
<p>Natalia Shakhova is a research associate professor of the University Alaska Fairbanks, International Arctic Research Center, where she focuses on the East Siberian Arctic Shelf (ESAS). Shakhova believes we should be concerned ... because that area differs significantly from methane emissions happening elsewhere around the world. ... it holds an area-weighted contribution to the global hydrate inventory of “at least 10 to 15 percent.”</p>
<p>“These emissions are prone to be non-gradual (massive, abrupt) for a variety of reasons,” she told Truthout. “The main reason is that the nature of major processes associated with methane releases from subsea permafrost is non-gradual.”</p>
<p>This means that methane releases from decaying frozen hydrates could result in emission rates that “could change in order of magnitude in a matter of minutes,” and that there would be nothing “smooth, gradual or controlled” about it; we could be looking at non-linear releases of methane in amounts that are difficult to fathom.</p>
<p>“In the ESAS, methane is predominantly transported as bubbles. ...; this means that it only takes minutes for methane to reach the water surface and escape to the atmosphere.”</p>
<p>... a 50-gigaton “burp” of methane from thawing Arctic permafrost beneath the East Siberian sea is “highly possible at anytime.” That would be the equivalent of at least 1,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide. (Remember, for perspective, humans have released approximately 1,475 gigatons in total carbon dioxide since the year 1850.)</p>
<p>The dangers of methane-related warning are staggering, according to Leifer.</p>
<p>Beckwith notes that the increasing methane releases in the Arctic and the massive impact they will have on the planetary weather system mean “there will be continuing disruption and fracturing of our weather and climate systems.”</p>
<p>He went on to issue a stark warning. “<span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>Further acceleration of these processes is very likely to lead to an ‘abrupt climate change’ system reorganization</strong></span> from a cold, snowy, ice-covered Arctic Ocean to a ‘blue Arctic Ocean’ regime,” he said. “The final state could have a global temperature average being 5 or 6 degrees Celsius warmer and <strong><span class="font-size-3">the transition to this state could occur in one to two decades, as has occurred many times in the past as recorded in paleorecords</span></strong>.”</p>
<p>The advent of the “blue Arctic Ocean” Beckwith warns us of is only a matter of time, and will most likely happen before 2020,...</p>
<p>Beckwith believes the first of these “blue ocean” events will likely last a few weeks to one month the first time it happens, but then extend to several months just a few years later. [emphasis mine]</p>
</blockquote> Feedbacks Accelerate Greenland Ice Melttag:www.atheistnexus.org,2015-01-21:2182797:Topic:25355902015-01-21T19:14:05.864ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150120151221.htm" target="_blank">Greenland Ice: The warmer it gets the faster it melts</a></p>
<p>Expect <em>accelerating</em> sea level rise from Greenland Ice Sheet melting. Previous estimates ignored feedbacks of the ice sheet itself.</p>
<blockquote><p>Greenland might be especially vulnerable to melting because that area of Earth sees about 50 percent more warming than the global average.</p>
<p>Feedbacks in the climate system cause…</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150120151221.htm" target="_blank">Greenland Ice: The warmer it gets the faster it melts</a></p>
<p>Expect <em>accelerating</em> sea level rise from Greenland Ice Sheet melting. Previous estimates ignored feedbacks of the ice sheet itself.</p>
<blockquote><p>Greenland might be especially vulnerable to melting because that area of Earth sees about 50 percent more warming than the global average.</p>
<p>Feedbacks in the climate system cause accelerated temperature rise over the Arctic. Other feedbacks in the Greenland Ice Sheet that contribute to melting include height-melting feedback. A warm year in Greenland causes more melt around the edges of the ice sheet, lowering the surface. The atmosphere is warmer at lower altitudes, so the now lower surface experiences even more melting. This process can lead to accelerated ice melt and sea level rise.</p>
<p>Another form of feedback occurs because ice sheets are large masses that want to spread.</p>
<p>"Many studies of sea level rise don't take into account feedbacks that could cause rapid sea level rise,"...</p>
<p>The researchers looked at two models of the Greenland ice sheet that include some of the important feedbacks. The first model is a three-dimensional ice sheet model. The second model looks at a transect across the island...</p>
<p>Both the three-dimensional and transect models showed that <strong>the time necessary for ice mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet <span class="font-size-3"><em>decreases</em> <em>steeply</em></span> with increases in temperature</strong>.</p>
<p>Both the three-dimensional and transect models showed that the time necessary for ice mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet decreases steeply with increases in temperature.</p>
<p>The interplay between the height-melting feedback and ice flow causes this acceleration.</p>
<p>"Our analysis suggests that the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in terms of avoided sea level rise from the Greenland Ice Sheet, may be greatest if emissions reductions begin <strong>before</strong> large temperature increases have been realized,"... [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p><a target="_blank" href="http://cdn.coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/greenland-ice-melt.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://cdn.coastalcare.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/greenland-ice-melt.jpg?width=300" width="300"/></a><a href="http://coastalcare.org/2011/03/melting-ice-sheets-becoming-largest-contributor-to-sea-level-rise/" target="_blank">image source</a></p> The Great Acceleration toward an inhospitable planettag:www.atheistnexus.org,2015-01-16:2182797:Topic:25332652015-01-16T22:25:33.125ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>Two reports summarize our danger. Four of the nine "planetary boundaries" that will drive the Earth into a new state inimical to life are already crossed. When Earth's temperature exceeds a 2°C rise, they will all have been crossed. Based on 24 primary drivers of Earth's physical, chemical, biological and human processes, the Anthropocene probably began around 1950, because that's when the Great Acceleration kicked in.</p>
<blockquote><p>Human activity, predominantly the global economic…</p>
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<p>Two reports summarize our danger. Four of the nine "planetary boundaries" that will drive the Earth into a new state inimical to life are already crossed. When Earth's temperature exceeds a 2°C rise, they will all have been crossed. Based on 24 primary drivers of Earth's physical, chemical, biological and human processes, the Anthropocene probably began around 1950, because that's when the Great Acceleration kicked in.</p>
<blockquote><p>Human activity, predominantly the global economic system, is now the prime driver of change in the Earth System (the sum of our planet's interacting physical, chemical, biological and human processes)...</p>
<p>Almost half of the processes that are crucial to maintaining the stability of the planet have become dangerously compromised by human activity.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150115142223.htm" target="_blank">New planetary dashboard shows 'great acceleration' in human activity since 1950</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/01/150115163533.htm" target="_blank">Nearly half the systems crucial to stability of planet compromised</a></p>
<p></p>
<blockquote><p><a target="_blank" href="http://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/01/150115142223-large.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://images.sciencedaily.com/2015/01/150115142223-large.jpg"/></a>After 1950 you can see that major Earth System changes became directly linked to changes largely related to the global economic system. This is a new phenomenon ...</p>
<p>The international team of 18 scientists identified two core planetary boundaries: climate change and "biosphere integrity." Altering either could "drive the Earth System into a new state."</p>
<p>Almost half of the processes that are crucial to maintaining the stability of the planet have become dangerously compromised by human activity.</p>
<p>The research fixing new planetary boundaries (which represent thresholds or tipping points beyond which there will be irreversible and abrupt environmental change) ... suggests that changes to the Earth's climate, biosphere integrity (a concept covering loss of biodiversity and species extinction), and land-system (through deforestation for example) represent a risk for current and future societies. The fourth process which has become significantly compromised is the nitrogen-phosphorus cycle, which affects both the water we drink and our ability to produce food.</p>
<p>Internationally agreed upper climate limit of <span class="font-size-3" style="color: #ff0000;"><strong>2 degrees lies beyond the climate change boundary</strong></span>: which makes 2 degrees a risky target for humanity, and therefore an absolute minimum target for the global climate negotiations. [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p>Since more than a 2 degree rise is already "locked in" by current infrastructure investments and commitments, it seems we have guaranteed a near-future inhospitable planet.</p> Wind Turbine Advancetag:www.atheistnexus.org,2015-01-05:2182797:Topic:25285172015-01-05T23:05:05.676ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/revolutionary-new-irish-turbine-turns-a-gentle-breeze-into-a-profitable-gale-30880054.html" target="_blank">Revolutionary new Irish turbine turns a gentle breeze into a profitable gale</a></p>
<p>AirSynergy, and Irish company, makes a wind turbine which uses a shroud to funnel wind to the blades. This will make wind energy profitable over 80% of the world's land.</p>
<blockquote><p class="lead">Jim Smyth has designed a revolutionary new wind…</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/revolutionary-new-irish-turbine-turns-a-gentle-breeze-into-a-profitable-gale-30880054.html" target="_blank">Revolutionary new Irish turbine turns a gentle breeze into a profitable gale</a></p>
<p>AirSynergy, and Irish company, makes a wind turbine which uses a shroud to funnel wind to the blades. This will make wind energy profitable over 80% of the world's land.</p>
<blockquote><p class="lead">Jim Smyth has designed a revolutionary new wind turbine that generates twice as much electricity as a conventional installation. The design - a huge technological breakthrough - allows electricity to be freely produced in places where there is little or no wind.</p>
<p>For years the thinking was that you had to build ever bigger wind turbines - 500-foot tall and more - with huge blades and locate them in windy places such as remote headlands or far out at sea.</p>
<p>In stark contrast, the Granard, Co Longford-based AirSynergy machines are much smaller and cheaper and use the principal of funnels to accelerate wind speed.</p>
<p>"<strong>Our turbine design doubles the air speed at the rotor</strong>, which doubles the electrical power, which means you no longer have to chase the wind.</p>
<p>"Presently only 10pc of the world's landmass has sufficient wind speed for generation; this technology opens up 80pc of the world - that's an eightfold increase." [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6LYwN_KbnVA?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
</p> Tropical Rain Forest loss means you'll go hungrytag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-12-19:2182797:Topic:25218182014-12-19T19:34:59.100ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p>Tropical rain forest loss cuts down agriculture far away. Tropical rain forest loss in South America, Africa and South Asia not only increases global CO2, it dramatically alters rainfall and temperature in agricultural regions of North and Central America, Europe, and China. These "Teleconnections" effects are as serious as Global Warming and happen right away.</p>
<blockquote><p>... increased or complete deforestation could put the climate in some of the world's most important agriculture…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tropical rain forest loss cuts down agriculture far away. Tropical rain forest loss in South America, Africa and South Asia not only increases global CO2, it dramatically alters rainfall and temperature in agricultural regions of North and Central America, Europe, and China. These "Teleconnections" effects are as serious as Global Warming and happen right away.</p>
<blockquote><p>... increased or complete deforestation could put the climate in some of the world's most important agriculture regions off kilter.</p>
<p>... future agricultural productivity across the globe is at risk from deforestation-induced warming and altered rainfall patterns.</p>
<p>For example, complete deforestation of the Amazon Basin would likely reduce rainfall in the US Midwest, Northwest and parts of the south during the agricultural season. The complete deforestation of Central Africa would likely cause declines in rainfall in the Gulf of Mexico and parts of the US Midwest and Northwest and increase it on the Arabian Peninsula. There could also be precipitation declines in Ukraine and Southern Europe.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141218080823.htm" target="_blank">Clearing tropical rainforests distorts Earth's wind and water systems, packs climate wallop beyond carbon</a></p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://images.sciencedaily.com/2014/12/141218080823-large.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://images.sciencedaily.com/2014/12/141218080823-large.jpg"/></a></p> Negotiating Human Extinctiontag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-12-06:2182797:Topic:25169222014-12-06T20:30:11.231ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://grist.org/climate-policy/2011-12-08-the-brutal-logic-of-climate-change-mitigation/" target="_blank">The brutal logic of climate change mitigation</a></p>
<p>In 2011 David Roberts explained why climate negotiations have set goals that nobody intended to meet, we can't give up "growth" based on a paper by Kevin Anderson and Alice Bows.</p>
<blockquote><p>Long story short, Anderson and Bows argue that we are systematically blowing smoke up our own asses. (Though, ahem, that’s…</p>
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<p><a href="http://grist.org/climate-policy/2011-12-08-the-brutal-logic-of-climate-change-mitigation/" target="_blank">The brutal logic of climate change mitigation</a></p>
<p>In 2011 David Roberts explained why climate negotiations have set goals that nobody intended to meet, we can't give up "growth" based on a paper by Kevin Anderson and Alice Bows.</p>
<blockquote><p>Long story short, Anderson and Bows argue that we are systematically blowing smoke up our own asses. (Though, ahem, that’s probably not how they would put it.)</p>
<p>We pretend that 2 degrees C is our threshold. Yet the climate scenarios and plans presented to policymakers do not actually reflect that threshold. As Anderson and Bows say, “<strong>most policy advice is to accept a high probability of extremely dangerous climate change rather than propose radical and immediate emission reductions</strong>.”</p>
<p>Note, also, that most popular climate scenarios include an implausibly early peak in global emissions — 2010 in many cases, 2015-16 in the case of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_Review">Stern Report</a>, the <a href="http://www.adamproject.eu/">ADAM project</a>, and the U.K.’s <a href="http://www.theccc.org.uk/">Committee on Climate Change</a>.</p>
<p>Why do climate analysts do this? Why do they present plans that contain wildly optimistic assumptions about the peak in global emissions and yet a high probability of overshooting the 2 degrees C target?</p>
<p><strong> ... climate analysts construct their scenarios not to avoid dangerous climate change but to avoid threatening economic growth</strong>. That would make sense if being richer would help us prosper in a 4 degrees C [7.2 degrees F] world.</p>
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<p><a target="_blank" href="http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/sad-drinking-man?w=473"><img class="align-center" src="http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/sad-drinking-man?w=473"/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/lima-climate-talks-2-degree-warming-limit-thing-past-288274" target="_blank">At Lima Climate Talks, 2-Degree Warming Limit Is a Thing of the Past</a></p>
<p>Here we teeter, with our toes into 2015 and, as Zoë Schlanger says, we</p>
<blockquote><p>... have all but ensured that <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/were-kidding-ourselves-2-degree-global-warming-limit-experts-n257006" target="_blank">we will pass</a> the ... benchmark of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming by 2100. Now, <em><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/01/world/climate-talks.html?smid=re-share" target="_blank">The New York Times</a></em> reports, <strong>the negotiators’ objective is to stave off atmospheric warming of 4 to 10 degrees Fahreinheit, or roughly 2.2 to 5.6 degrees Celsius, by the end of the century</strong>, at which point, experts say, Earth may “become increasingly uninhabitable.”</p>
<p>As … James Hansen <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2013/jul/10/james-hansen-fossil-fuels-runaway-global-warming" target="_blank">put it</a>… We are on the verge of creating climate chaos if we don’t begin to reduce emissions rapidly.”</p>
<p>Steven Sherwood, a professor at the University of New South Wales, in Australia, and author of another study looking at the implications of four-degree warming, came to a similar conclusion. … “4C would likely be catastrophic rather than simply dangerous,” … [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p>The smoke we're now blowing up our asses is about <span style="color: #ff6600;"><span style="color: #ff0000;"><strong><span class="font-size-3">raising the planet 2.2 to 5.6 degrees Celsius in 85 years</span></strong></span><span style="color: #000000;" class="font-size-2">! Incomprehensible! Insane!</span></span></p>
<blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff6600;"><span style="color: #000000;" class="font-size-2">... the agreement being drafted in Lima this week will not be enacted until 2020.</span></span></p>
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<p><span class="font-size-3" style="color: #ff6600;"><span style="color: #000000;">In Lima we're seeking an agreement to <em>only</em> destroy civilization in 85 years, if we're successful, instead of sooner. "We", of course doesn't mean the population of Earth, but the 0.01%, the elites in control.</span></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="color: #ff6600;"><span style="color: #000000;">I never imagined I'd live in a world darker than Cyberpunk Sci-Fi.</span></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="color: #ff6600;"><span style="color: #000000;"><a target="_blank" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X_3NjPkQIWk/Uxa5pzNXRmI/AAAAAAAAW4c/jwXfX62_xm0/s1600/1970650_835385033155145_716954343_n.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X_3NjPkQIWk/Uxa5pzNXRmI/AAAAAAAAW4c/jwXfX62_xm0/s1600/1970650_835385033155145_716954343_n.jpg?width=450" width="450"/></a></span></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3" style="color: #ff6600;"><span style="color: #000000;"><a href="http://climatechange911.blogspot.com/2014/03/graphic-there-are-no-jobs-on-dead-planet.html" target="_blank">image source</a></span></span></p>
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<p></p> Frack under the Ohio Rivertag:www.atheistnexus.org,2014-10-01:2182797:Topic:24824772014-10-01T16:43:57.049ZRuth Anthony-Gardnerhttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/RuthAnthonyGardner
<p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/29/3573449/west-virginia-to-frack-ohio-river/" target="_blank">West Virginia Plans To Frack Beneath Ohio River, Which Supplies Drinking Water To Millions</a></p>
<p>Safe water, your state doesn't care if it needs money - at least for PA and West Virginia.</p>
<blockquote><p>On Friday, Tomblin’s administration <a href="http://www.charlestondailymail.com/article/20140927/ARTICLE/140929347/1420">opened up the process</a> for companies to bid on…</p>
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<p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/29/3573449/west-virginia-to-frack-ohio-river/" target="_blank">West Virginia Plans To Frack Beneath Ohio River, Which Supplies Drinking Water To Millions</a></p>
<p>Safe water, your state doesn't care if it needs money - at least for PA and West Virginia.</p>
<blockquote><p>On Friday, Tomblin’s administration <a href="http://www.charlestondailymail.com/article/20140927/ARTICLE/140929347/1420">opened up the process</a> for companies to bid on oil and gas leases located 14 miles underneath West Virginia’s section of river, which also acts as a natural border with Ohio. The bids would allow for companies to use the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to stimulate the wells.</p>
<p>Nine citizen and environmental groups are urging West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to reconsider his plans to let companies drill for oil and natural gas underneath the Ohio River, citing concerns that drilling and fracking could contaminate the drinking water supply and increase the risk of earthquakes in the region.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://ohvec.org/programs/marcellus/2014_09_17-letter-%20to-gov-re-drilling-under-river.pdf">letter</a> sent to the governor this month, <strong>the coalition of Ohio- and West Virginia-based groups said Tomblin’s Department of Environmental Protection has not proved that it can adequately protect <span class="font-size-3">the Ohio River</span>, which <span class="font-size-3">supplies drinking water to more than <a href="http://www.ohioriverfdn.org/education/ohio_river_facts/">3 million</a> people.</span> The groups cited</strong> drilling currently taking place in a state-designated <a href="http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/07/29/wildlife-area-becomes-site-for-gas-drilling/">wildlife area</a>, which some have complained is <a href="http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/587910/Drilling-Disturbing-Preserve.html?nav=515">unacceptably disrupting</a> the nature preserve, and <strong>a <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/07/09/3458401/freedom-fined-11k-west-virginia/">chemical spill</a> in January that tainted the drinking water supply for 300,000 people.</strong></p>
<p>“The well-documented deficient enforcement capability of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas has been on public display for years,” the letter reads. [emphasis mine]</p>
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<p><a target="_blank" href="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/shutterstock_136122599-638x425.jpg"><img class="align-center" src="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/shutterstock_136122599-638x425.jpg?width=400" width="400"/></a>In PA, when a landowner's water became grey and foamy from hydrogen sulfide, acetone, chloroform, and “explosive levels of methane” contamination, the investigation was stalled for 3 years because the fracking company claimed it had no way of knowing what it was injecting.</p>
<p><a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/09/30/3573768/pa-fracking-drinking-water-investigation-errors/" target="_blank">Pa. Official Admits Errors In Investigation Of Whether Fracking Waste Spoiled Drinking Water</a></p>
<blockquote><p>The reason Range said it was unable to provide information about its chemicals was because the makeup of its chemical-based products are “outside of [Range's] reach and cannot be obtained.” In other words, those products come from third-party suppliers and manufacturers, and those manufacturers won’t tell Range what is in the products.</p>
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